Johnny Showtime: Oscars 2026

 by JB

I must say, I found the winners last Sunday night to be amazing and surprising...

...Amazing and surprising because I agreed so wholeheartedly with so many of them. I am on record here, constantly nit-picking and second-guessing, and have often suggested that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences usually gets these things wrong. This time they got it oh-so-right.

1. Both Conan’s Weapons-inspired opening montage and his monologue were spot on. It was the funniest opening in years. And because I personally found the running children in Weapons to be terrifying, I appreciated Conan poking fun at it so I can finally start sleeping at night.

2. At the beginning of the broadcast, I realized that a good deal of the night would essentially be Sinners vs. One Battle After Another. Because I thought both films were extraordinary, I settled in for an evening of pleasures.

3. I actually really liked the set design this year. It reminded me of our favorite Asian-inspired restaurant in North Hollywood.

4. Please note: I had a funny feeling that F1, which I did not see, and Frankenstein, which I did not like, would take home some “ancillary awards” like Sound, Editing, Costumes, and Make-Up. Thinking like an Academy voter, I reasoned that F1 had loud car races in it, which involve sound. Frankenstein had a monster in it, which involves make-up. Turns out, I was right.

5. The first actual award was not given out until 21 minutes into the broadcast. Uh-oh.

6. Zoe Saldana used the phrase “balls to the wall.” Another first in Oscar history, given that Mary Tyler Moore was not allowed to read the speech she had prepared in 1981.

7. Amy Madigan won Best Supporting Actress for Weapons, a horror film. Oscar famously hates horror films. Gee, could more people who actually deserve to win take home statues tonight? That would be GREAT.

8. K-Pop Demon Hunters won Best Animated film. The best film in the category won the award. Wait, is this a trend?

9. How odd that Kate Hawley won Best Costumes for Frankenstein and accepted the award wearing a borrowed raincoat and a hospital gown.

10. The censor missed Hawley’s swear word, dropping the audio just one second too late. You all heard what she said. This night was clearly going to be balls to the wall!

11. There was a tie amongst the Best Short Subject Award winners: Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva both won Oscars. Both films are honestly excellent. Bravo.

12. Sean Penn won Best Supporting Actor for his overly showy roll in One Battle After Another. I would have preferred any of the other nominees. Could the Academy just love hateful, cartoonish villains—or, in our current political climate, could Academy voters just love a hateful, cartoonish villain who get humiliated and punished in nasty ways?

13. Conan did a comedy bit with Sterling K. Brown, spoofing Casablanca. Brown played what looked like Sam’s iconic piano from the film. The actual piano is part of the Academy’s collection; it’s on display in their museum. My wife and I theorized that Conan had the real prop sent over from the museum—it sure looked like it. That would be cool!

THIS JUST IN: AI informs me that it was NOT. “The piano featured in the Casablanca spoof with Conan O'Brien and Sterling K. Brown on the 2026 Oscar telecast was a replica, not the original 1942 film prop. The actual piano used in Casablanca is a rare 58-key cabaret-style piano, known for its distinct green and distressed yellow coloring.” Oh well. Still a fun bit!

14. Symbolizing the real competition of the evening, Ryan Coogler won Best Original Screenplay for Sinners; Paul Thomas Anderson won Best Adapted Screenplay for One Battle After Another. Coogler receives a standing ovation.

15. A lot of beloved movie people died this year. The “In Memoriam” montage was broken into two parts; Billy Crystal paid tribute to Rob Reiner at the beginning, Rachel McAdams waxed nostalgic about Diane Keaton halfway through, and Barbara Streisand eulogized Robert Redford at the end. The whole thing was very moving, especially when Babs started singing “The Way We Were.”

16. Sigourney Weaver presented... and did a funny bit with Kate Hudson and Grogu in the audience. Conan O’Brian points out that Grogu is incapable of clapping. But HE TRIED, dammit, and isn't that WHAT ART IS ALL ABOUT?!

17. Autumn Durald Arkapaw won Best Cinematography for Sinners and became the first woman to ever win that award... in 98 years. The first! A trailblazer.

18. Joachim Trier won Best International Film for Sentimental Value and pointed out that 1,792 people worked on the film. Sentimental Value received about NOK 32.9 million (that's more than $3 million) in grants and funding from the Norwegian Film Institute. It makes one wish that more countries would subsidize filmmaking as a nationalized jobs program; some countries prefer to gut federal spending on the arts. Go figure.

19. Trier identified himself as a “film nerd” and said, “I’m so happy to call the movies ‘home.’” This reminded me of a sentence from Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, a book that I taught for many years. Cisneros wrote of creating “a home in the heart.” These two concepts quickly sent me down a rabbit hole, thinking about the home we have created together here at F This Movie—scores of people who all call the movies "home". And I thought about all of you readers and listeners, and all of our contributors to the site, and how we have created a home in the heart for each other: F This Movie Fest, Junesploitation, and Scary Movie Month are all just occasional, virtual family reunions.

20. It really was great night, was it not?